"Can you not wait to see us start?" asked the girl.
"You will find a boat on the shore just in front of you," began the other. "And you had best start as soon as it is light. But there is nobody about here, and you are not in any danger. As to my staying, I will watch you from the woods, a short ways back. It would not be well for me to stay here, for I am human——"
The man paused a moment as he gazed into the girl's beautiful face.
"I am very weak," he said, with a sad smile. "I might accept the reward you offer."
And with that he bowed, then turned resolutely on his heel and strode away into the darkness.
As he did so he passed Clif; and Clif, as he saw him leave rushed toward the dark figure that stood in the doorway of the hut.
What had been Clif's agony of mind may be imagined. When he saw the lieutenant going away it had flashed over him that perhaps he refused the act of treason implied in his going to America.
And Clif's heart began to throb once more with the wild hope he had tried so hard to suppress.
"Bessie!" he panted. "Bessie! What did he say?"
"He has gone back to Havana," was the answer.